India v Pakistan, 2nd semi-final, World Cup 2011

Ajmal still baffled by Tendulkar lbw reversal

ESPNcricinfo staff

Pakistan offspinner Saeed Ajmal has said that he is still not sure how the Decision Review System (DRS) overturned on-field umpire Ian Gould's lbw ruling against Sachin Tendulkar during the World Cup semi-final against India in Mohali. Gould ruled Tendulkar lbw off Ajmal in the 11th over, but the batsman reviewed the decision. Replays showed that the ball pitched in line but according to Hawk Eye the ball was missing leg stump and the decision was overturned.

Wahab Riaz

"I don't know how the television replays showed my delivery turning towards the leg side because I had bowled an arm ball and it went straight," Ajmal toldAFP on the team's arrival in Lahore. "I was 110% confident when the referral was made that the batsman was out." Tendulkar was on 23 at that point, and survived four dropped chances before he was dismissed after making a crucial 85 that earned him the Man of the Match award.

Ajmal picked up two wickets and said that he was happy with his bowling performance but disappointed that Pakistan lost the high-voltage clash to India by 29 runs. "All of us were very disappointed at losing the match because there was so much interest and hype attached to it. But in cricket one team has to lose and one has to win," he said.

The pick of the Pakistan bowlers in that game was left-arm seamer Wahab Riaz who picked up his first five-wicket haul in ODIs and had India in trouble at 205 for 6 before Suresh Raina's cameo. "The wickets of [Virender] Sehwag and Yuvraj [Singh] were most memorable for me as they are very dangerous players of pace and spin," Riaz said. Riaz had Sehwag lbw for 38 and accounted for Yuvraj Singh for a duck with a swinging, dipping full toss.

Pakistan were warmly welcomed by their fans when they arrived in Lahore and captain Shahid Afridi, who landed in Karachi, was mobbed by joyous fans on the way to his house. Opening batsman Mohammad Hafeez, who made a quick-fire 43, urged the Pakistan fans to have faith in the team. "This team has a lot of capability and will get better results in the future," he said.

Pakistan manager Intikhab Alam praised the team spirit and said the way the team had gelled together and played as a unit through the tournament was the most satisfying aspect of the campaign. "My main task was to unite the team and make it perform collectively and I think we achieved that to a great extent and that is satisfying for me."

Pakistan next travel to West Indies to play Twenty20, five one-dayers and two Tests. That tour begins on April 18.

© ESPN EMEA Ltd

Younis Khan drops Sachin Tendulkar

Younis Khan drops Sachin Tendulkar, India v Pakistan, 2nd semi-final, World Cup 2011, Mohali, March 30, 2011

©AFP

Younis Khan drops Sachin Tendulkar, India v Pakistan, 2nd semi-final, World Cup 2011, Mohali, March 30, 2011©AFP

Sachin Tendulkar celebrates India's win with an ecstatic leap

Sachin Tendulkar celebrates India's win with an ecstatic leap, India v Pakistan, 2nd semi-final, World Cup 2011, Mohali, March 30, 2011

©Associated Press

Sachin Tendulkar celebrates India's win with an ecstatic leap, India v Pakistan, 2nd semi-final, World Cup 2011, Mohali, March 30, 2011©Associated Press

Virender Sehwag's son joins in the post-match celebrations

Virender Sehwag's son joins in the post-match celebrations, India v Pakistan, 2nd semi-final, World Cup 2011, Mohali, March 30, 2011

©AFP

Virender Sehwag's son joins in the post-match celebrations, India v Pakistan, 2nd semi-final, World Cup 2011, Mohali, March 30, 2011

©AFP

India v Pakistan, 2nd semi-final, World Cup 2011, Mohali

India well prepared for pressure games - Dhoni

Sharda Ugra at the PCA Stadium

March 30, 2011

MS Dhoni

One of the most important benefits from India's scrappy World Cup semi-final victory over Pakistan - apart from the sound and sight of a hundred firecrackers going out around the PCA stadium on a Mohali night and the adoration of millions - is their team's sense of being in what captain MS Dhoni equated to a good spell.

Dhoni said the format of the World Cup had helped the Indians get to a stage just before the final where off-field distractions and on-field pressures could both be handled. "The format really helped us. We have had quite a few close games where we were tested. Some of the youngsters were tested. They were at the crease at a time when a big performance was needed from them. Slowly they are getting into the groove."

Dhoni said India's performances in the knockouts had given the team a greater sense of comfort going into the final, with regard to the pressures of the event. He compared the last week of the World Cup to a bowler bowling at more than 150kph. "Once you do that you don't think whether you are bowling 155 or 160. So I think after the semis, the final won't feel much different. The feeling (of the importance of a game) has been static for a while and hopefully that will really help us."

In the semi-final, Dhoni said the Indians had read the wicket incorrectly in deciding to opt for a 3-1 attack, replacing offspinner R Ashwin with left-arm seamer Ashish Nehra. It was driven, he said, by India's part-time options as well as Pakistani batsmen generally being at ease against spin. "We can manoeuvre with the part-timers. We thought on a normal Mohali pitch, you don't see assistance to spinners. The ball doesn't turn big time. Here the ball was stopping.

"I felt it was better to go with safer option, but we went with a safe option and misread the wicket."

The Indians, Dhoni said, had paced their innings against Pakistan well, particularly when compared to how they had handled the World Cup's middle and end overs prior to this game. The track, he said, became slower at the halfway stage, and with the Pakistanis bowling tight and India losing Virat Kohli and Yuvraj Singh off consecutive deliveries, it had become difficult to rotate the strike. "Their spinners bowled really well, even Mohammad Hafeez was able to capitalise." The innings calculation had then been tempered down. "After losing two wickets in the middle overs it is important to bat 50 overs in big games, you shouldn't look to score 300-320. If the wicket is behaving in a different way, re-adjust your target."

Dhoni said he had thought India's total of 260 was "a good score not a safe score" and India's immediate target had been to "not give away runs with the new ball."

All that Dhoni was willing to comment on about the first-ever all-Asian World Cup final to be held on April 2 was to praise the Sri Lankans for their progress through the tournament. India he said, "have also really been tested more often than not and it will be a really good game. It's not about what your rating is but how good you are on the day. You have to be at your best."

Sharda Ugra is senior editor at ESPNcricinfo

'I am proud of my team' - Afridi

India v Pakistan, 2nd semi-final, World Cup 2011
'I am proud of my team' - Afridi

Shahid Afridi pronounced himself "proud" of his team's performance in the World Cup and hoped that their reception on arrival in Pakistan would reflect the side's achievement in getting to the last four at a time when expectations were significantly lower.

Pakistan lost by 29 runs to India in Mohali in a scrappy match, in which they were generally off their game with bat, ball and, most damagingly, in the field. They were in with a chance at various stages, including when they began the chase, only to let it slip each time.

Afridi said the batting, their weaker suit, had been problematic again. There were several starts but no stand greater than the opening one of 44. "We were struggling to build partnerships right through the tournament," he said. "The matches where we had partnerships we made good scores. Because we couldn't make partnerships, today we struggled and played some bad shots at the wrong time as well."

But their run-in to the game, with only one loss in seven matches, came after another period of turmoil which saw them lose three key players in last year's spot-fixing scandal, including a dangerous new-ball opening pair in Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir. To add to the instability, Afridi wasn't appointed captain until two weeks before the tournament began but an unheralded Pakistan side beat Sri Lanka, Australia and West Indies en route to the semi-final.

Afridi had said before the tournament he wanted his team in the last four and despite the loss, seemed in generally upbeat mood. "I am proud of my team and the boys have done a great job in this World Cup. A few of the youngsters are very promising and we played as a unit. Winning and losing is something different but we really played really good cricket and no one was expecting us to play cricket like this. As captain I'm very happy."

The run was Pakistan's best in a World Cup since 1999, when they were runners-up to Australia. In 2003 and 2007 they were eliminated before the knock-out stages, disastrous results which led to intense anger and criticism on their return. It is unlikely Afridi's side will receive a similar reception though already the early signs of reaction from Pakistan seemed to focus on Misbah-ul-Haq's slow batting in the chase as the cause of defeat.

"We have played better than those sides [of 2003 and 2007] and they were good sides," Afridi said. "We didn't have much hope from this side but I have respect for my team. Reception? We will go back, people will give us confidence, they backed us. If those people who make us stars say a little what's wrong with that? It's nothing big. Nobody wanted Pakistan to lose, we wanted to win, but people I think realize we gave it our all. To win six games from eight is a big achievement."

A few incidents apart, Pakistan went through the tournament without any major scandal and a visible sense of unity and togetherness within the squad. That in itself was a minor triumph given what had gone before. "The difficult circumstances we played cricket in, the difficult circumstances we have gone through in the last nine-ten months, to build this team and the effort we put in was phenomenal.

"I'd like to thank the PCB chairman for giving me support and the way the boys supported each other and me, the management and the coach, they really helped me a lot. To take a broken team, make it into a team for the World Cup and to perform like no one was expecting, I'm happy with that."

Osman Samiuddin is Pakistan editor of ESPNcricinfo

Wahab Riaz is ecstatic after knocking over MS Dhoni

Wahab Riaz is ecstatic after knocking over MS Dhoni, India v Pakistan, 2nd semi-final, World Cup 2011, Mohali, March 30, 2011©Getty Images

Wahab Riaz is ecstatic after knocking over MS Dhoni, India v Pakistan, 2nd semi-final, World Cup 2011, Mohali, March 30, 2011©Getty Images

Sachin Tendulkar walks back after a chancy 85

Sachin Tendulkar walks back after a chancy 85, India v Pakistan, 2nd semi-final, World Cup 2011, Mohali, March 30, 2011©Getty Images

Sachin Tendulkar walks back after a chancy 85, India v Pakistan, 2nd semi-final, World Cup 2011, Mohali, March 30, 2011©Getty Images

Pakistani fans watching the semi-final on a big screen in Islamabad

Pakistan fans, watching the semi-final on a big screen in Islamabad, celebrate the dismissal of Sachin Tendulkar, India v Pakistan, 2nd semi-final, World Cup 2011, March 30, 2011

©AFP

Pakistan fans, watching the semi-final on a big screen in Islamabad, celebrate the dismissal of Sachin Tendulkar, India v Pakistan, 2nd semi-final, World Cup 2011, March 30, 2011©AFP

toss pakistan vs indian 1st semi final

toss
pakistan vs indian 1st semi final
India won the toss and elected to bat

Gul focussed on India top order

India v Pakistan, World Cup 2011, Mohali

Gul focussed on India top order

India v Pakistan, 2nd semi-final, World Cup 2011, Mohali

Umar Gul focussed on India top order

Sharda Ugra in Mohali

Umar Gul and Shoaib Akhtar

Umar Gul is the man who operates in the shadows of his more colourful companions of the Pakistani bowling pack. Behind his captain Shahid Afridi among Pakistan's leading wicket-takers at this World Cup - 14 wickets to Afridi's 21 - Gul has emerged as the searing inquisitor with the new ball en route to Pakistan's arrival into the semi-final.

It will all come to a head in Mohali on Wednesday when Gul opens the bowling against the strongest batting contingent of the event. It is his first spell that could dictate how the rest of his team's overs go, but Gul has identified what he needs to do. "The first three wickets in the top-order are very crucial for us. They are depending on the top three. I am looking for these three batsmen." Now these are words tailor-made for screaming headlines, ("Gul targets top three", "Gul wants to rip through India top order") but Gul delivered them as if he were saying something routine. Like telling the physio about his ankles or ordering room service.

Were Gul to run into India's top three in their hotel corridor between now and Wednesday afternoon, there would be handshakes, smiles and pleasant chit-chat. It is a fact that most of the fans on both sides find hard to to digest, particularly two days before the World Cup semi-final that once again sets up one of the most over-heated rivalries in sport.

Gul said that given the strength of the Indian batting, the World Cup had taken his bowling to the rhythm it needed at the right time. "Our bowling is very good. Afridi is the leading wicket-taker. I am happy with my performance and form. We have a bit of an advantage with our bowling but I am happy with the way the batsmen played in the quarter-final." He said that the ideal combination for Wednesday would be the Pakistani bowlers being on top of their game on a friendly wicket, and the batting giving the start like it had against the West Indies.

The advantages of working with coach Waqar Younis and assistant coach Aaqib Javed, both fast bowlers of skill and nous, had found strong echoes at the World Cup, according to Gul. "I've only fully understood in this World Cup how much help I have got from them." On the tour to New Zealand, Waqar had informed Gul that he would be bowling with the new ball in the World Cup. "For the last one-and-a-half-years, I wasn't able to deliver with the new ball because of which I lost my form." In the last two-three months, however, working with both Waqar and Aaqib, had brought it all back, rhythm, confidence and success. "It's been like I was bowling in the past, I've got my new-ball skills back, which is good for the team."

One of the biggest dilemmas facing Pakistan is whether to play Shoaib Akhtar in what could be one of his last matches. Shoaib was dropped following Pakistan's defeat to New Zealand but Gul dismissed the talk that he had been omitted because of issues within the team about Shoaib's conduct. "He was rested after the New Zealand match so that he can focus on his fitness. The way he has been practicing for three days, I hope he will do well."

Shoaib's partnership with medium-pacer Abdul Razzaq and also the spin option of Mohammed Hafeez at the start has worked well enough, but Gul welcomed the idea of sharing the new ball with Shoaib. Asked whether he personally would like to partner Shoaib against India, Gul said, "Of course. He is our most experienced bowler and he has done very well in the past, especially against India. A little bit of pressure will be lifted off me too if he plays because in the last couple of matches, when Shoaib wasn't there, all the pressure was on me."

Gul was asked whether he agreed with what MS Dhoni had said about the match actually being bigger than a final. He said, "See, I don't think Dhoni was talking for himself, he was speaking about the expectations of the Indian people. As a player, no one would say this (a semi-final) is bigger than the final, but every cricketer feels the pressure of their people. We also feel the same pressure - our people also feel that we must beat India in each match. You can say that, if we were speaking not for ourselves, but for Pakistan's people, then yeah, it's a final and we will try to win.

"A semi-final can't be bigger than a final but it's a big match, a high-pressure match." Whether it is a knockout game or a league game, "any match against India is a big match always," Gul said, and then, for the first time in the press conference, he smiled.

The match was "crucial" for the teams but then Gul moved beyond the cricket. "It brings both countries closer, it's very good not only for the players but also for both countries." The prime ministers of both nations seem to agree with the fast bowler. "People from both countries want us to play each other often. Both fans enjoy the cricket because the more we play each other, it's better. I hope it will be a good match and both countries play well."

He also understood what the consequences would be for the losing semi-finalists. "Always, whether you are the Indian or the Pakistani team, there is pressure. The supporters of both teams absolutely cannot bear a defeat. But we've done well in the World Cup, we've won six of our seven games. The kind of support we have got from Pakistan, we are very happy. Whether we win or lose is not in our hands, inshallah we will try and play good cricket."

The team had not heard of Pakistan interior minister Rehman Malik's comments about how they would be monitored closely following the spot-fixing controversy. "I am not aware of this until now ... We don't focus on the media; we are focussing only on our cricket. The kind of pressure we have had over the last several months and the way we have handled it, this (the Malik statement) is no pressure at all."

Before he walked off to be with his mates and in the shadows again Gul faced a question about whether he sought stardom of the kind enjoyed by Afridi and Shoaib. He could have given the safe answer but chose not to. He spoke like a young man doing the hard yards in a punishing profession. "It is only natural, every player hopes he will get the kind of fame that Sachin (Tendulkar) or Afridi has. It doesn't work that way though. Players like that are idols, so Afridi and Shoaib, whether they perform or don't perform, are idols for the people of Pakistan. They will always remain that way. Sometimes in the heart, yes I do wish that I have the same kind of fans that Afridi and Shoaib have, the same fan following."

Then the fast bowler in him returned and he said, "But even then, I am satisfied with the following I have but I am never satisfied with my performance. If I do well in one game I want to perform better in the next ... I always want to try to perform better than the previous time."

No better time to perform than in a World Cup semi-final.

Which is why in the evening, like Gul had earlier promised, the Pakistanis turned out for a fielding session under lights, spending an hour. It was meant to assess the dew factor in Mohali and to give their skills one final polish. Pakistan are not practicising tomorrow and this session under lights would be their last hour on the field before they walk out into the sun on Wednesday afternoon.

Sharda Ugra is senior editor at ESPNcricinfo

India v Pakistan, 2nd semi-final, World Cup 2011, Mohali

Mercurial outsiders v solid favourites

The Preview by Sriram Veera

March 29, 2011

Match Facts

March 30, Mohali
Start time 1430 hours (0900 GMT)

The Big Picture

Beyond the hype this contest can perhaps be best viewed through the prism of the two captains. Shahid Afridi is the passionate, exhibitionist leader who doesn't mind showing his emotions on the field. He will shout, cajole, plead, laugh, roar and feel every pulsating moment of the contest. It's exactly what this Pakistan team needs after all those controversies, someone who can remind them of the school-boyish joy that this game can provide.

MS Dhoni is the uber-cool captain and, while he can be vocal while dealing with the press, he is almost invisible on the field. Silent nods of appreciation, a quiet word in the ear, calm instructions, a shrug of the shoulder is all you will get from him. And again, it's what this star-heavy team needs. Someone who can be calm and remind them of the basics of the game.

Pakistan - who told their players they could be here in the semi-finals? - almost renews itself with each crisis. That's how it has been always: Controversies. Paralysis. Rebirth. Success. And more controversies. This was a big tournament for the survival of Misbah-ul-Haq, in the middle of a great comeback. In a sense, the spot-fixing saga and its sordid aftermath was actually a blessing in disguise since it paved the way for his return. For Younis Khan, too, survival instinct, as a batsman facing a dip in form before the tournament, would have helped in dealing with that crisis. Playing his last tournament, Shoaib Akhtar knew this was the time to let his game do the talking. And for that man Afridi, mentally almost perennially young, this was the best chance to dazzle on the biggest stage. He has taken that chance and led the team with great passion. Kamran Akmal lives and breathes in amnesia. Bad memories don't haunt him - who else could have recovered so well after that nightmarish effort against New Zealand?

And yet nothing much has changed with the way they play cricket on the field. It's still the bowlers who win the games for them. For all that is mercurial about them, Pakistan have lost just one game in this tournament.

India have occasionally limped, at times choked, sometimes dazzled, before beating Australia to reach to the semi-finals. The progress card has the bowlers in the red, the batsmen guilty of not finishing the job, and the fielding has always been almost beyond redemption. Their mode of progress should actually have freed them up in some ways. The batsmen must have realised that they can't try too hard to cover up for their bowlers' weakness, by trying to pile on too much, with the batting Powerplay pulling the rug from under their feet a few times. The bowlers showed they are learning from the serial hiding by putting up a pretty disciplined effort against Australia. In some ways, the pressure must be off them, as not many would be surprised if they leak 300 runs.

It's the batting India depend on. Is there any chink in it barring those Powerplay debacles? Gautam Gambhir hasn't been at his personal best - were he playing at his optimum, he would have rendered Virat Kohli superfluous at no 4. Yet Gambhir's slightly iffy form has made Kohli vital in that middle order. Prior to the tournament, it was felt that Kohli would be a misfit in the lower order, where Suresh Raina and Yusuf Pathan would be more dangerous, and that he might be wasted even further up. But Gambhir hasn't been at his fluent best and India have turned to Kohli to take them through the middle overs. Gambhir has always raised his game against Pakistan and his form will be crucial on Wednesday as it would then give the middle order the licence to attack.

Form guide

(completed matches, most recent first)

India WWLWW
Pakistan WWWLW

Watch out for...

Virender Sehwag In the past few games Sehwag has - curiously, for a batsman so wonderfully innovative as him - tried to hit every spinner through the off side. He would back away and try to drive, slice or cut and has fallen a few times in the process. Pakistan might well have a spinner bowling at him early and it will be fascinating to see whether Sehwag will retain that off-side bias or be more inclusive, and open, in his approach.

Umar Gul's yorkers: After Lasith Malinga, Gul has probably the best control over the yorker in world cricket today. There have of course been days when the radar has been awry but more often than not he has got them right. The Indian lower middle order will be fully tested by the yorkers, slower ones and the bouncers that he loves to bowl.

Sachin Tendulkar v Abdul Razzaq: Bowlers like Hansie Cronje and Razzaq, more than the Umar Guls and the Shoaib Akhtars, have been reasonably successful against Tendulkar. Cronje used to tease Tendulkar with deliveries shaping away from a length outside off while Razzaq specialises in the opposite: he slides the ball back in, looking for that lbw. He hasn't always had success, but it will be a mini-battle worth watching. Will Tendulkar opt for all-out attack or will he bat with relative care against Razzaq?

Zaheer Khan v Kamran Akmal Kamran loves to square drive and Zaheer has been able to bend the ball back in to the right-hand batsmen this tournament with the new ball. This contest should be fun.

Umar Akmal v spin: India will rely a lot on the slow bowlers during the middle overs, and Umar is the middle-order batsman who loves to attack spin. He has laid into the likes of Daniel Vettori on the tour of New Zealand and is always itching to cut and slog-sweep.

Team news

The signs are that Ashish Nehra is likely to replace Munaf Patel. Even Yusuf Pathan has been sweating it out in the nets raising speculations that he might push R Ashwin hard for a spot in the team. Ashwin has been really good in the games he has played and has added some teeth to the attack while the nature of the pattatrack has made India think about bringing in Yusuf.

India (probable): 1 Virender Sehwag, 2 Sachin Tendulkar, 3 Gautam Gambhir, 4 Virat Kohli, 5 Yuvraj Singh, 6 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 7 Suresh Raina, 8 Yusuf Pathan / R Ashwin, 9 Harbhajan Singh, 10 Zaheer Khan, 11 Ashish Nehra

Pakistan are thinking of playing three seamers. The choice of the third seamer is between Shoaib Akthar and Wahab Riaz. Afridi said Shoaib wasn't 100% fit today but a decision will be taken on the evening preceding the match.

Pakistan (probable) 1 Kamran Akmal (wk), 2 Mohammad Hafeez, 3 Asad Shafiq, 4 Younis Khan, 5 Misbah-ul-Haq, 6 Umar Akmal, 7 Shahid Afridi (capt), 8 Abdul Razzaq, 9 Saeed Ajmal / Abdur Rehman, 10 Umar Gul, 11 Wahab Riaz / Shoaib Akthar.

Try picking the XIs for tomorrow's game by playing Team Selector.

Pitch and conditions

It's a batting pitch but what's eating up everyone is the dew factor. Read here for a report on the pitch .

Stats and trivia

Afridi is the first bowler in World Cup history to take four wickets in a match on four different occasions in a tournament.

MS Dhoni is the only wicket-keeper captain who has played in 100 ODIs.

Zaheer Khan is the second Indian bowler after Javagal Srinath (44 wickets) to take more than 40 wickets in World Cups.

For more stats click here

Quotes

"I feel I have been batting really well. It is just that in some situation I could not bat flamboyantly. If you bat at 5, 6 or 7, and if the top order does really well, it does not give opportunity to lower-order batsmen. The last game was an ideal game where I could have got a bit more runs which were needed at that point of time. So form has been a worry it is just that sometimes there were not many opportunities and when there was an opportunity and there were times I was not able to score in a particular game". 

MS Dhoni on his own batting form

Sriram Veera is a staff writer at ESPNcricinfo

Shahid Afridi and Abdul Razzaq

India v Pakistan, 2nd semi-final, World Cup 2011, Mohali

Misbah not worried by batting numbers

Shahid Afridi and Abdul Razzaq

Misbah-ul-Haq is not impressed by statistics and he doesn't care about history either. That helps, particularly with an India-Pakistan match due to break out at the World Cup within three days.

One of the anchors of Pakistan's batting and the man with the team's top score in the World Cup so far - 83 not out against Sri Lanka - Misbah said numbers could be meaningless if they did not agree with the results column. Pakistan's certainly don't.

Umar Akmal is their heaviest run-scorer in this World Cup, but he is placed as low as 28th in the list of top run-getters. Never mind the batsmen from Test-playing nations, Umar follows players from Netherlands, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Canada in the table.

Umar has scored 211 runs from five innings, with a single half-century. Among his team-mates, he is followed by Misbah (192), Kamran Akmal (188), Younis Khan (172), Mohmmed Hafeez (172), Asad Shafiq (124 from two innings) and Abdul Razzaq (101). Of the batsmen, only Misbah and Younis have scored more than one fifty in the tournament, and the team have managed nine overall. When compared to India, those are paltry figures: India have five centuries, ten fifties and five India batsmen have scored more runs than Umar.

Yet Pakistan finished at the top of their group and, regardless of the weakness of some of its Associate opposition, had the more emphatic first four weeks of the tournament between the two teams. In Mohali, after a lengthy round of football, fielding and then the conventional nets, Misbah deconstructed the numbers down to their bare basics. "According to me, the most important thing for any team is winning. If we don't score a hundred and win the World Cup, then that is very good for us. If we score centuries and get knocked out of the tournament, then it's no use."

In India, Misbah's public persona is built on the image of the man who tried the scoop shot and failed, handing India the World Twenty20 title in 2007. In person, he carries himself with gravitas; he speaks slowly but certainly. He will be beaten in any words-per-minute contest by his captain Shahid Afridi or Younis. But should it last longer than fifteen minutes, Misbah would probably still be holding his own. Like he has done through his career, this is the man for the long haul. He has been central to Pakistan's progress in the World Cup, where their batting may not look like a flashy suit, but its main thread holds strong.

"It's really a plus for teams whose batsmen are in form, are scoring centuries and are in the top 20 run-scorers, but winning is important," Misbah said. "If you score a fifty or even a timely twenty or thirty that is vital for a victory, then that's good enough for the team." This under-the-radar cricketing approach has worked for Pakistan, particularly after the horrors of the England tour now called the 'spot-fixing series.' Pakistan have won 14 of their 31 ODIs since the 2010 Asia Cup, their batsmen have managed totals of more than 250 the same number of times, with Pakistan winning nine of those games.

The Pakistan batsmen could find the best batting conditions they have encountered so far in the tournament in Mohali, after spending five weeks grinding it out on slow, low tracks in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. The lack of pace off the pitches has been, Misbah said, a "struggle". In some parts of the subcontinent, contrary to the stereotype, "runs don't come easy," Misbah said. "The ball is turning, the bounce is low, so just like when we go outside these conditions and struggle against bounce and pace, scoring runs here on these wickets is an art too. And those who know how to play on low-bouncing wickets, they can do well and score runs. But batting can be a struggle." It is why this has been far from a batsman's World Cup.

In Sri Lanka, Misbah said, batsmen required a "tightness" of play. "The new ball seams, the spinners get help later and you have to work as a batsman, because the tracks help bowlers of both types." In Bangladesh, he said, batsmen needed to be patient, to adjust. "Because of both low bounce and turn, batting requires you to really spend time and build an innings."

Pakistan's players have watched several of the World Cup matches held in India, and Misbah said the variety he saw across venues meant there never really was one defined 'type' of Indian pitch.

Once upon a time Mohali had a 'type': quick, bouncy and friendly for the fast men. That legend has faded and it is what India, in particular, will be pleased about, as batsman for batsman and numbers for numbers, they will believe they are better than their semi-final opponents.

Pakistan need not have bothered to haul over a slab of black stone to be put to use in the nets. The throwdowns given to every batsman on one of the practice pitches were made to pitch on the stone, Misbah explained, to generate bounce that the practice wickets did not quite contain. The real wicket probably won't contain it either.

Of the World Twenty20 final which he had all but snatched away from India before that last-over shot, Misbah said: "You can't just stick to the past. Every game is a new game, it's not like this game is important because of that match. To us every game is special. This one especially; this is the World Cup, it is a semi-final. I really want to do well."

Memory is a meaningless ghost for a cricketer like Misbah, who has had an up-and-down career, at one stage dropped from the Test and one-day squads only to return as Test captain. There was speculation that he may have been handed the role of one-day captain as well for the World Cup, but the selectors stuck with Afridi, who is never under the radar, but in this World Cup has not come through as the destructive batsman the world knows he can be. He has only 65 runs at 10.83 in the tournament, but the strike-rate monster that lurks within him may just light up at the sight of the handkerchief-sized ground in Mohali.

From being under the radar for over five weeks, Misbah and his team will now face the floodlights in a World Cup semi-final at a stadium which may have a low capacity, but will have a heavy-duty crowd.

Sharda Ugra is senior editor at ESPNcricinfo